Valley awaits Spring

If you think this is one more coffee-table book… glanced at and left on the table… you are off the track.

It happened to me… and then the visual on the cover called me back. Undoubtedly there was a hidden depth in the multitude in prayer... spread across the page. With bare trees under a cloudy sky, many a head bent in deep dialogue with the Creator... there was quest and an urge.

I needed to surrender... went into silence and solitude, as Amit Mehra took over.

Ranjit Hoskote’s words straightaway take you and me into a fold of times and happenings. “Any photographer who wishes to address the contemporary reality of Kashmir finds himself bound by a double chain of images... a chain that binds together two rival and mutually opposed regimes of visuality which have dominated the perception of Kashmir...”

I, as a visual person, shudder at what awaits me in Mehra’s journey.

Pages move over... They fill the eye with colour... and, as it passes through your sensitivity zone... a pain... huge pain lingers. Is it the rising sun or the setting sun... hidden behind the cloud you see? Is the cloud masking a tear? With a knowing... unknown feeling, I move over. If only all beauty could be thorn-free... cage-free...

Once upon a time... my age zone can only describe it this way… in 1973, I was there in the Valley with my wife and children. Months long we were amidst the most endearing beauty... most endearing people. Camera was happy. So was I.

But then, that was yesterday.

Even today, hordes of people go to the Valley. Love with nature... love with people remains the same.

Barbed wires... guns protruding... but Mehra’s images serve as a barometer of an anguish that is held in reserve... creating an empathy with pride in their eyes. Watchful and, yet, courteously welcoming a visitor.

“Through the image — at the level of the intimate detail, far from the surging, shouting crowds and the allure of the picturesque, in this place of the meditative quiet... Amit Mehra communicates the core reality of contemporary Kashmir...” Hoskote sums it up.

A thought and... there a tear. Autumn... the fallen dry chinar leaves.

Amit Mehra with his endearing visual soul... I have a feeling... will soon witness spring in the Valley.

From a broken classroom window a young one smiles... Spring in store?

And then... if looks matter... call it a coffee-table book. But hold it close… for Mehra’s visual journalism is such.

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